Monofilament interproximal devices are described and claimed in: U.S. Pat. Nos. Re 35,439; 3,800,812; 4,974,615; 5,760,117; 5,433,226; 5,479,952; 5,503,842; 5,755,243; 5,845,652; 5,884,639; 5,918,609; 5,962,572; 5,998,431; 6,003,525; 6,083,208; 6,148,830; 6,161,555; and 6,027,592, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. These dental tapes generally have serious shortcomings in gentleness, in delivering coatings during flossing and in being handled easily and conveniently during flossing
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) based interproximal devices are described in: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,209,251; 5,033,488; 5,518,012; 5,911,228; 5,220,932; 4,776,358; 5,718,251; 5,848,600; 5,787,758; and 5,765,576. To date, no commercial versions of these tapes have been coated effectively and cannot be used to deliver active ingredients, interproximally and subgingivally during flossing. Handling during flossing is difficult. Most have to provide a consumer acceptable edge. Many are plagued with serious dimensional inconsistency problems, as well.
Several Patent Applications have been filed on monofilament dental tapes with coatings comprising from between about 20% by weight and about 120% by weight of the monofilament tape. These are described in copending U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial Nos. 60/227,433 and 60/227,255, filed Aug. 23, 2000 and Serial No. 60/263,220, filed Jan. 22, 2001, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention is directed to coated monofilament tapes with improved abrasive properties having a precoating that permanently holds abrasives to the tape during flossing, while simultaneously releasing a second saliva soluble overcoating containing various cleaning, mouth conditioning and therapeutic substances.
The permanent abrasive coating is described as a xe2x80x9cSoft Abrasive(trademark)xe2x80x9d that is effective during flossing in gently physically disrupting and/or removing: supragingival plaque and tartar, plaque and tartar at the gingival margin, interproximal plaque and tartar, subgingival plaque (biofilm), and supragingival and interproximal stained pellicle, etc.
Accordingly, one embodiment of the present invention is monofilament dental tapes coated with a Soft Abrasive(trademark) permanent coating and overcoated with a saliva soluble coating suitable for physically removing biofilms, tartar and stained pellicle from interproximal, subgingival and gingival margin areas of teeth.
Preferably, the Soft Abrasive(trademark) used with these monofilament dental tapes comprises a permanent coating that contains a permanent adhesive selected from the group consisting of polyvinyl, alcohol-based, epoxy-based, solvent-based, radiant-cured, methacrylate-based, polyurethane-based, natural and other synthetic-based adhesives and combinations thereof. More preferably, the Soft Abrasive(trademark) permanent coating contains an abrasive selected from the group consisting of tricresylphosphate, dicalcium phosphate, pumice, aluminum silicate, silica, glass beads, titanium oxide, rice flour, quartz, novaculite, silicon carbide, alumina zirconia, alumina, polishing alumina, calcined aluminum oxide, calcium oxide, silicon and zirconium oxide and combinations thereof.
Another embodiment of the present invention comprises a method for removing tartar, biofilms and stained pellicle. The method comprises flossing regularly (i.e., at least once daily) with a monofilament dental tape coated with a Soft Abrasive(trademark) permanent coating and overcoated with a saliva soluble coating suitable for physically removing biofilms, tartar and stained pellicle from interproximal, subgingival and gingival margin areas of teeth.
Another preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises a method for manufacturing monofilament dental tapes coated with a permanent Soft Abrasive(trademark) and overcoated with a saliva soluble coating. The preferred manufacturing method comprises the steps of:
(a) precoating said tape with a permanent adhesive at from between about 1% and about 30% by weight of said monofilament tape;
(b) adding an abrasive at from between about 0.25% and about 20% by weight of the monofilament tape;
(c) curing said adhesive/abrasive coating; and
(d) coating said treated tape with a saliva soluble coating at from between about 30 mg/yd and about 70 mg/yd.
In order to improve biofilm disruption and/or removal with coated monofilament dental tapes, it has been found that these tapes require more abrasive action than can be achieved with the various saliva soluble coatings containing various abrasives at various levels. Eventually, these saliva soluble coatings, with their high abrasive contents, are xe2x80x9cworkedxe2x80x9d out of those interproximal, subgingival and gingival margin areas, where they have been delivered during flossing by saliva and crevicular fluid flow, in combination with the sawing action that takes place during flossing. All of the foregoing tend to dilute-out the abrasives released during flossing and to minimize their tartar, biofilm and stained pellicle physical disruption and/or removal capabilities.
Therefore, one preferred embodiment of the present invention is a method for the improved removal of tartar, biofilm and stained pellicle, in which the method comprises the physical removal and/or disruption of these materials by cleaning with monofilament dental tapes having improved physical abrasive properties.
Another preferred embodiment of the invention comprises the coated monofilament dental tapes described herein, which include the gentle permanent abrasive properties described.
Still another preferred embodiment of the invention is a process for producing saliva soluble coated monofilament dental tapes with an insoluble permanent abrasive coating that gently removes and/or disrupts tartar, biofilms and stained pellicle.
Yet another preferred embodiment of the invention is an improved method for physically removing and/or disrupting tartar, biofilm and stained pellicle using coated monofilament dental tapes with improved abrasive action
For the purposes of the invention, various monofilament dental tapes including PTFE, elastomeric, homopolymer and bicomponent dental tapes are precoated with a permanent adhesive selected from a wide range of adhesives including polyvinyl alcohol based adhesives, polyurethane adhesives, epoxy adhesives, ultraviolet cured adhesives, polymethacrylate based adhesives, etc.
Various abrasives are added to the adhesive prior to the adhesive curing in a manner that allows at least a portion of the adhesive surface to be available for imparting abrasive action to the monofilament tape during flossing. The xe2x80x9csand paperxe2x80x9d effect of these various adhesive/abrasive combinations produces a gentle xe2x80x9cSoft Abrasive(trademark)xe2x80x9d action when combined with the saliva soluble coating substances in the overcoating applied to the permanent adhesive coating for release from the tape during flossing.
Suitable adhesives for the permanent Soft Abrasive(trademark) coatings on monofilament dental tapes of the present invention include:
polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer based adhesives that can be fully hydrolyzed, partially hydrolyzed and copolymerized under the trademark Elvanol(copyright), including Elvanol(copyright) Grades: 50-42, 51-05, 52-22, 70-06, 71-30, 75-15, 85-30, 85-82, 90-50, T-25 and T-25 LR,
solvent based adhesives,
radiant cured adhesives including UV light and electron beam (EB) cured adhesive,
epoxy based adhesives,
methacrylate based adhesive,
polyurethane based adhesives, and
other natural and synthetic adhesive substances that will adhere to those monofilament substrates as described in Tables 1 through 4 below.
The adhesives can comprise from between about 1% and about 30% by weight of the monofilament tape.
Suitable abrasives for use in the monofilament dental tapes of the present invention, which are designated by the trademark xe2x80x9cSoft Abrasive(trademark),xe2x80x9d include tricresylphosphate (TCP), dicalcium phosphate (DCP), pumice, aluminum silicate, silica, glass beads, titanium oxide, rice flour, quartz, novaculite, silicon carbide, alumina zirconia, alumina, polishing alumina, calcined aluminum oxide, calcium oxide, silicon and zirconium oxide; all of the foregoing at various crystal forms, particle shapes, including platy and hexagonal; various hardness including Rockwell 48-50c at various sieve analysis ranging from U.S. sieve #6 to #40; various specific gravity ranges including 2.65 gm/cc, 3.20 gm/cc, 4.3 gm/cc, 3.6 to 3.9 gm/cc.
These abrasives are added to adhesive precoated monofilament tape at between about 0.25% and about 20% by weight of the monofilament tape. A preferred method of adding the abrasive to the adhesive precoated tape is by means of a dusting process where the tape is passed through a chamber charged with abrasive particles in the air, wherein the abrasive particles coat the precured adhesive coated tape as it passes through the dusting chamber.
Some of these abrasives are commercially available from AGSCO Corp. Wheeling, Ill.
Suitable monofilament tapes such as described in Tables 1 through 4 below can be precoated with Soft Abrasives(trademark) including adhesive/abrasive combinations such as described above to produce Soft Abrasive(trademark) tapes wherein the adhesive/abrasive combination comprises from between about 1% and about 50% by weight of said monofilament tapes. These Soft Abrasive(trademark) tapes are then overcoated with saliva soluble coatings such as described in Table 5 to produce Soft Abrasive(trademark) coated monofilament tapes.
Saliva soluble coatings for monofilament tapes to be bobbin wound according to the present invention are described in Table 5 below. In the Table, the term xe2x80x9cUltramulsion 10-2.5xe2x80x9d is defined as an emulsion of polydimethylsoloxane (PDMS) at 2.5 million cs in a nonionic surfactant Poloxamer 407, where the PDMS is at 10% by weight of the total emulsion.